The two primary goals of Core C Bioinformatics and Integrative/Comparative Genomics Core are (1) to provide the common computational infrastructure and bioinformatics support for high-throughput, systematic data curation, exchange and translation, and (2) to develop, apply and automate computational integrative/comparative genomics methods on microarray-derived transcriptome data, across the different Project model systems. An integrative and comparative genomics approach will enable each Program Project to use diverse muscle and non-muscle transcriptome data sets from all Program Projects and the public domain to generate hypotheses about candidate genes, functional dependencies or pathways that are important in muscular dystrophies, muscle development and myogenic cell therapy. The approach combines information from public databases of bio-molecular functions and interactions, and multiple-genome sequence data to prioritize further experimental studies in the different model systems. The three aims of Core C are: (1) to establish an integrative computational infrastructure for data storage, curation and automated cross-systems matching of genomic data elements; (2) to develop and implement computational methods for integrative/comparative functional genomics; and (3) to use integrative/comparative genomics techniques to systematically identify or infer functional hierarchies underlying developmental aspects of muscle cells and specific myopathies for further experimental validation.